When China first sent giant pandas to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park, and the big crowds they drew
- Two giant pandas, Bao Ling and Bao Li, arrived at the city theme park to great fanfare in December 1978, the Post reported
- Fresh bamboo for them to eat was sent twice daily from the zoo in Guangzhou that had loaned them, and over three months they were seen by 800,000 park visitors
“Ocean Park may soon get giant pandas on loan [from China],” the South China Morning Post reported on October 10, 1978. On December 5, it was so, as “two animal VIPs arrived from China yesterday – pandas Bao Ling and Bao Li”, the Post reported the following day.
“Ocean Park employees have built a special enclosure for the two, who were yesterday reported to have eaten heartily of bamboo shoots, their staple fodder.
“The enclosure built for the pandas was approved by Kwangchow [Guangzhou] Zoo, which sends the two fresh rations of bamboo each day […] Park officials said they had also located a large grove of bamboo here which would be sufficient to feed the pandas for 10 days.”
On December 7, the Post reported, “The pandas, on loan to the park […] in an unprecedented arrangement, are housed in a reasonably roomy cage (155 sq yards) reinforced with bulletproof glass.”